Women's Hockey 2015 - 2016 Season.

[imafrshmn]

Really frustrating game. Colgate's goals were of the flukey variety and the refs put their whistles in their pockets, with a couple egregious missed calls (except very quick whistles to stop play for 'gate's keeper). Our hockey has been fluid at times and disjointed at others. Colgate is decent this year but really shouldn't be ranked 11th. I believe we're still a better team than 'Gate, but we need to find some magic and fluidity. I am worried, though, that Coach Derraugh just doesn't have the horses for the team to be successful. Some players seem to be getting overly tired on their shifts, and our defensive zone strategy quickly reverts to "just get the puck out". As advertised, the defensemen are the team's strong suit this year, but Cass Poudrier has been the only one to consistently create offensive chances.

[dag14]

Women lose to Mercyhurst by a lot of goals on Friday night [1-5] and beat Mercyhurst by a lot of goals on Saturday afternoon [6-1].  I am not really sure why although we took a lot of stupid penalties Friday and the penalties seemed more balanced today.

[Jim Hyla]

Cornellians in the NWHL.

[mattj711]

Nice 4-2 win over BU this afternoon.

[imafrshmn]

Very good, gritty win over BU. It was a physical affair, as many of our matches against BU have been over the years. The refs called plenty of penalties on the Red, but we were able to limit BU's ability to generate scoring opportunities, especially after the first period which was sloppy for both teams. We got some good goaltending today out of Boissonnault--good rebound control, especially during the third period. I don't want to speak too soon, but we've just put together our best two performances of the year back-to-back against quality opponents...it's certainly encouraging!

[Al DeFlorio]

Tomorrow's game against Vermont is webcast on CatamounTV at 3:50.

http://www.nsnsports.net/colleges/university-of-vermont/

[imafrshmn]

Good result today with an efficient, comfortable, 4-0 win against a somewhat downtrodden Vermont Catamounts side to put us back at .500. Paula Voorheis returned to net for the first time since the superb 6-1 win over Mercyhurst on Saturday 11/21. She looked good out there and solidified her hold on the lead goaltender role. However, the coaching staff has mixed up the goaltending quite a bit this year, reflecting their unusual depth at the position. According to time played in net, Voorheis leads at 60%, freshman Boissonnault is at 25%, with Boughn and Moak splitting the rest 8% and 7%. Cassandra Poudrier had an awesome weekend, having a hand in 5 of our 8 goals (2G, 3A). Jess Brown continues to readjust to playing after a long hiatus due to injury, and it's great to see. She is looking better by the game and makes smart plays with the puck, while her speed and strength are still coming back. Taylor Woods also continues to impress with her gutsy performances, scoring critical goals, drawing penalties, blocking shots, and just being a complete player.

[Jim Hyla]

Bunton, Hart, Poudrier Named To 2016 Nations Cup Roster

[imafrshmn]

Pretty good performance tonight against a fairly dangerous St. Lawrence team. We seemed to have the upper hand in quality of play for the most part and the 4-3 margin reflected the two teams' performances--with a little bit of luck, we could have won by a 2 or 3 goal margin or we could have easily been tied. Jess Brown is catching fire! She put together a hat trick tonight. Her first goal put the Red up 1-0, as she charged into the slot to receive a pass from Doering who was springing up the left half boards, and calmly one-timed it in. She scored her second to put us up 3-2 by dekeing out SLU's goalie and going five hole after sneaking into the slot on the power play to get a quick pass from Hanna Bunton at the point. Her third came at 6:42 in the 3rd, somehow cleaning up a rebound in traffic. Her offensive skills are clearly at a high level; she would fit in nicely with the BC's and the Minnies of the world and it's great to have her. Anna Zorn, Pippy Gerace, Taylor Woods, and of course Cassandra Poudrier were also standouts tonight for me.

Meanwhile in Potsdam, Colgate came up with an upset victory over the Golden Knights with an insane goal batted out of the air by Shae Labbe that Shea Tiley couldn't quite stop, swatting it in with the back of her outstretched glove just 12 seconds into OT! It should be an intense battle tomorrow at Cheel. I expect it to be a tough battle, with Clarkson probably outshooting us. Shea Tiley clearly had a sub-par (for her high standards) outing tonight, so it will be interesting to see how she plays against us. I think it's possible that Boissonault goes in net for us tomorrow night, although Voorheis has started in all of our ECAC games so far this year and seems the odds-on choice in net again.

[RichH]

Wonderful report, Freshman. Thank you. Two great wins on the road vs. BU and SLU. This team is amazingly sitting behind half the league in the polls, but there's still great talent there. If they can figure out the D & G, they have reason to surprise. I expect a loss at Clarkson in a battle, but there's a lot of fight to come from them.

[imafrshmn]

Just past the halfway point at Cheel and it's not looking promising for the Red, down 3-0. Clarkson are making us look a step slow today; they've been fully able to play the possession game and eventually came up with the goods to get it past Voorheis after a scoreless first period. After a timeout, we opened up our play a bit, finishing the final third of the period with some better chances. It's going to take a special 3rd period to get back into this one.

Voorheis headed for the bench before the 5 minute mark in the 3rd, down 4-0--Derraugh always shows faith in the team and rolls the dice.

Clarkson did a great job of taking us off our game today, giving us very few good opportunities to score. Like the men's team, I think this women's team relies on playing with the lead to feed their transition game. I imagine it's especially true on the road, especially in the second game of a weekend set.

[imafrshmn]

In Women's Hockey alumni news, the Calgary Inferno (with Jenner, Saulnier, Campbell, Cudmore) recently played Toronto to a 6-5 loss on Sunday. Natalie Spooner, perhaps Team Canada's best player in the past few years (I think of her as the Canadian version of Hillary Knight), scored an incredible 5 goals and assisted on the other one! Campbell scored a goal, Cudmore had a goal and an assist, Jenner had 2 assists, and Saulnier had 3 assists.

On Saturday, the same teams played the first of the weekend set, with Calgary winning 9-5! Spooner had 2G... Jenner 2A, Saulnier 1G, Cudmore 2G+1A, Campbell 1A. Great to see that these ladies are still lacing up the skates and playing well. As a side note, Matt Moulson's sister Shannon (who played for Niagara University) plays for Toronto now.

http://cwhl_site.stats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=2707698
http://cwhl_site.stats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=2707696

[dbilmes]

Interesting article about concussions in women's hockey. Former Cornell star Digit Murphy is quoted in it, and Cornell was one of only two schools with women's hockey teams to respond completely to survey from NY Times about concussion protocols, etc.

[Trotsky]

Cornell beats Dartmouth 5-3 in Hangover,

[ursusminor]

RPI highlight video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGB3bXop-C8&feature=youtu.be.